Karren Brady Interview

Karren Brady, Vice Chairman of West Ham F.C. and Lord Sugar's Advisor on The Apprentice talks to us about her latest projects, how to succeed in business and how she balances work with family life.

Karren Brady began working at Saatchi & Saatchi aged 18 and after a varied career path, made headlines as the first women in football when she became Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club in 1993.

She turned the Clubs fortunes around from being in administration when she started, to selling the club in 2009 for £82million.

In January 2010, Karren was appointed Vice Chairman of West Ham United F.C. and is also now a TV favourite as a judge alongside Lord Sugar on The Apprentice.

When youre starting your own business its really important to think through your plan: whats the idea, why is it relevant to the market, how much money you are going to invest, how are you going to tell people about it. Then you must also think about the downsides and the risks. And finally you must accept that nothing compensates for the hours you put in, that youll have to knuckle down and work hard. Thats why its so important to set up a business that you really like because you are going to spend a long time doing it.

I was given two best pieces of advice one was from my grandmother who used to say to me, you never look down on people unless you are helping them up. The other was from David Dean, who owns Arsenal, who told me when I first went into football to never believe the manager when he says just one more player. Thats very good practical advice.

The most important characteristics you need to succeed in business are resilience, determination and persistence.

When it comes to juggling work with family I wish I could give one solution that everybody could rule, but for me the most important thing is inner-acceptance. You can only do what you can do. You cant be at the school gates and in boardroom and that sort of acceptance that you are doing your best I think is a great watershed for women. You have to have two personalities: your home personality and your work personality and the trick really is not to allow one of those personalities to drain the life out of the other. When Im at home Im 'Karen Peski Solido mother-of-two' when Im at work Im 'Karen Brady dont mess with me'.

The fellow business women I admire varies from Annie Lennox who has sustained a fantastic music career, but is also like me  a very strong feminist who spreads the message that actually all a feminist wants is equality in everything that we do. I think Hiliary Clinton, who has sort of risen out of the ashes of her husband to become a wonderful politician in her own right, which isnt easy, is also fantastic. And then someone like Madonna who has been going for so long and re-invented herself and is still relevant today as she was.

The three words Id use use to describe my work ethic are determined, relentless and honest.

When it comes to getting more women on company boards I would like to see the companies that dont to write to their shareholders and say why. How many women have they interviewed? What qualities have they not been able to find? Hopefully that could help us teach the next generation of women what skills they need to get right to the top.

The skills boardwomen need today are firstly to understand that being on the board of a company is a huge responsibility. You need to make a contribution both to the risk strategy, to the Brand strategy, to the ethos of the company and the way it treats customers and its staff. And secondly I think you need to be really interested in the job, because nobody goes on a board for money, you do it because it is a business that you like, you think that you can assist and drive and re-shape, re-model and keep driving forward, so it has to be something you enjoy.

Ive just received the short list for the Red Hot women awards and it gets harder every year to judge because the women get more diverse, more powerful, more interesting, some things they do are amazing. But Sam sort of drives us through the process, with rigid military planning so I am looking forward to it, it is a great event.

Im also involved with the International Day of the Orchid which aims to celebrate strong women and I love all orchids, my house is full of them. So when I was asked to have one named after me, I said yes.

Find out more about our Red Panel and ask your questions one-on-one with our live Red Chat, every Friday at 1pm.

The winners of the Red Hot Women awards will be announced early next year.

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